Kansas’ signature tune “Carry on Wayward Son” was featured prominently in the Saturday Night Live sketch “Husbands” on April 4, and the band’s guitarist and original member Rich Williams was happy to see it play a role in something so funny.
In the segment, a group of husbands are forced to hang out together as their wives chat in the kitchen. They have nothing to talk about, until host Jack Black begins singing “Carry on Wayward Son,” and the men all chime in and sing along.
“There’s always a good and bad side to things. Everybody I know is sending me the clip,” Williams tells New York Magazine’s Vulture column. “So it’s a nice problem to have, I’ll say that.”
Williams says over the past 50 years Kansas has had a reputation as a “really serious band,” but he notes, “We laugh all the time. We have a lot of stupid inside jokes and our own language.” He adds, “But to be a part of something like this is just wonderful.”
“It’s another feather in our cap that adds to our legacy,” he says. “We’re still out there and working, but to be acknowledged by an institution like Saturday Night Live? Wow.”
Williams describes Jack Black as “one of a kind,” noting “to see him involved in that sketch gave it a lot of credibility, because he’s a musician himself.”
But when it comes to the tune, Williams was unable to answer a question that’s probably been on a lot of fans’ minds — why isn’t the song named “Carry on My Wayward Son” since that’s what they sing in the song?
“Wow. That’s a good question, and I can’t answer that,” he says. “Maybe those two letters filled up too much room on the disc.”
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